The microfluidic device is a device capable of inducing chemical reaction of a reaction solution including an extremely small amount of a sample and reagent, and examples include a microreaction device (microreactor), an integrated DNA device, and a microelectrophoresis device.
The microfluidic device is used in a reaction device that subjects the reaction solution to desired temperature changes. The temperature changes imparted on the reaction solution can be implemented rapidly with the use of a microfluidic device.
A nucleic acid amplification device that amplifies target nucleic acid by repeatedly imparting temperature changes is known. Using a microfluidic device as such a nucleic acid amplification device makes it possible to rapidly amplify the target nucleic acid.
For example, Patent Literature (PTL) 1 and Non Patent Literature (NPL) 1 disclose dividing a device into a plurality of different temperature zones and providing meandering channels that meander such that the reaction solution repeatedly passes through the temperature zones.
With this configuration, the reaction solution can be rapidly subjected to desired temperature changes simply by advancing the reaction solution through the meandering channel. With this, when a solution including nucleic acid is used as the reaction solution, nucleic acid amplification of the nucleic acid can be performed rapidly.